Apples
by Divine-Red-Crayon
Summary: Sam Manson was ready to tell Danny Fenton how she felt about him, but when it came down to the wire things didn’t go quite as planned. She might never be able to look at apples the same way again. [oneshot] R&R!


**:AN:** I'll make this quick. This is my first _published_ piece of DP writing. It is a one-shot. I hope you enjoy. And I hope I didn't go over board with the corn-factor.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Danny Phantom. I know; it was a shocker for me too. The plot is mine though, because I'm cool like that.

**Title:** **Apples**

Samantha Manson was determined. In fact, it was beyond just determined… she was like really, _really_ determined… for lack of a better word. But determination or not, she was a nervous wreck.

And who could blame her? She was about to do something big, something life altering, something that would change her relationship with her best friend, Danny Fenton, forever. And don't you dare sit there pretending you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm being rather obvious here.

Anyway, today was the day. She would tell him. And then… whatever happened, happened. There was little she'd be able to do after the fact. Well, she could make a brash wish that could result in erasing herself from Danny's memories… but she'd already tread that path, she'd prefer not to do it again.

She put on a hat, a coat, gloves, and boots –all of which were in a very stylish black. She'd called Danny and told him to meet her at the park because she had something important to tell him. She walked out the door and was blasted with cold air. She squinted. This wasn't a good sign. It was an abnormally cold autumn day, the wind was harsh and the clouds were threatening rain.

Oh well, it was too late now. She'd already called him. She pushed forward and soon arrived at the designated meeting place in the park. Danny was waiting for her.

"Hey Sammy," he smiled. "What's up?"

"Hi Danny," Sam replied. The started down the path walking side by side. "I asked you to come here because I have to tell you something."

"Well shoot," he said. "I'm all ears."

"Ok," Sam said, willing herself to look him in the eye. Here goes, she was really going to tell him. "The fact of the matter is Danny" – Just a few more words to go and she'd be home free- "Is that I" –Just two words to go, all she had to do was say to words, no more than two syllables… "Love"… One word, one syllable, she could do it! She could do it! She couldn't do it! Oh no… she was losing her nerve…but she had to say something and fast. "**Apples**!"

Sam repeated it to herself in utter disbelief. "I… love _apples_?" She looked at Danny. '_Oh well_,' she thought. '_No use denying it now_.'

Well, on the bright side Sam had finally come clean on her undying love for the forbidden fruit, as she declared with such desperation.

Danny stared at her for a moment. He had stopped walking and had given her his full attention. He was thick, but intuitive enough to recognize when something important was about to happen. He was taken by surprise when she cried out "apples" in the end. He stared at Sam. She blinked at him. Her face was still contorted into a serious expression. He started to chuckle, but it quickly grew to a laugh, then a guffaw. Soon he was rolling on the floor clutching his sides.

Sam on the other hand didn't find it nearly so funny. She pulled it off her head, got down on her knees and smacked him out of his laughing fit.

Danny's laughing did start to wind down; he stared at her with an amused glint in his eye. "You –_haha_- called me down here –_haha_- to tell me that –_haha_- you –_ha_- love –_haha_- _apples_? I didn't know you had such a great sense of humor!"

Sam, who was now just sitting on the ground, put her hat back on and rolled her eyes. Sam had to think fast, she had to play off this. And it _had_ to work out better than the last time she 'thought' fast. "Humor? What are you talking about? I, Sam Manson, am in love with a _fruit_." There, that worked. Plus it carried a fun double meaning that Danny wouldn't catch. Two points for Manson.

He laid back on the nearly dead grass and possibly a few dead leaves; he rested his head on his hands. "Well Sam," he quirked an eyebrow at her and smirked. "I can't say that I blame you, apples are pretty damn alluring."

Sam smiled at Danny. '_C'est la vie_,' she thought. "You, my friend, have no idea."

Danny looked a bit smug. Then Sam pointed out that there was a worm crawling on his arm. You'd think a boy who handled ghosts on an almost daily basis for the past three years would have handled the little thing with more grace than that.

Later that day Sam found herself lying on her bed and staring at her ceiling. She was pondering. Just how did "apples" roll off her tongue like that? She wasn't even especially fond of them, cherries were more her thing –the real deals, not those artificial red things in jars that taste like pure sugar on speed. Sam began to regard the importance of clarity on a whole new level. After all, this was supposed to be an earth shattering, life altering event, not some big joke she'd _never_ hear the end of.

She picked up her phone and dialed Valerie. It was nice to have a fellow girl to talk to sometimes. They were easier to relate to than guys with this sort of thing. More importantly, they always managed to listen to even the stupidest thing.

"So you told him?" The girl asked excitedly on the other line.

"Well, I-" Sam tired to explain.

"That's so great! How did he take it?"

"You didn't let me finish!" Sam protested. "I told Danny that… I love apples."

"Apples?" Valerie repeated.

"Yes," Sam confirmed. "Apples."

Sam was answered with the dial tone, so much for the ever understanding girl friend. She hung up the phone and lay back down.

Sam sighed and stared blankly upwards. She missed her cottage cheese ceiling. When she was little she'd always stare up there and make shapes in it the way other kids did with clouds. Wow, she'd been resisting sunlight for a long time now.

The next morning Sam was rudely pulled from her dream about riding a unicorn made out of clouds when her mother woke her up.

"Samantha," she said. "Would you mind coming down stairs and _explaining_ something to me?"

Sam glanced at her clock. At 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning she minded, but the look on her mother's face told her that didn't matter. She begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed and trudged down stairs behind her mother.

Sam immediately woke up and froze in her steps and she looked out her open front door.

"Imagine my surprise," her mother said. "When I opened the door to grab the newspaper and found that." She looked at Sam with a bemused expression. Obviously her daughter didn't quite know what to make of it either.

But then, how would you react to finding a bushel of apples with your name on it waiting for you on your front porch?

Sam approached it as though something might pop out and scare her, and having a pretty good idea as to who the sender was her worries weren't unfounded. After concluding that the apples were not in fact rigged, she picked up the folded note with said "SAM" in clear black letters; Danny's hand writing. She unfolded it.

_I love Apples too._

_From one Apple lover to another,_

_- Danny Fenton_

Sam looked up with a contorted expression on her face. '_Huh_,' she thought. '_What in hell's name is that supposed to mean_?' And why did Danny find it necessary to send her what looked to be anywhere from fifty to a hundred apples? And girls were supposed to be hard to read?

Mrs. Manson read the note over Sam's shoulder and gave her a funny look. "Is that some sort of personal joke between you two?"

Sam looked at her mother. "I honestly have no idea." She looked back at the apples. What exactly was she supposed to do with them?

Sam sat in her room and tossed an apple from hand to hand. Maybe Danny picked up on the fact that she hadn't meant to say apples? (Well, that much was obvious.) Maybe he secretly knew what she really wanted to say? Maybe this was his way of not letting the "joke" go?

She lay back on her bed and tossed the apple straight up. Then she caught it and sat up again. '_Well, he did sort of give me a gift… I think_,' she thought. '_The least I can do is go and thank him_.' She studied the apple in her hands. She knew just how to thank him. Yes, Sam Manson was having another incredible moment of genius. She called Danny and arranged another meeting in the park.

He laughed at her. "Going to confess to me your love of another fruit today, possibly a vegetable?"

"Har-har," Sam replied. "Just be there." She hung up on him for emphasis.

They met up in the same place they had the day before.

"Danny," she said, getting right down to business. "I called you here to thank you for the apples."

"Ok," Danny said.

"I've been thinking about the best way to thank you and I think I figured out a way," Sam informed him. "But you are going to have to do something first."

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

Sam smiled mischievously. "Close your eyes." He did. "Pucker your lips."

"What?" Danny asked keeping his eyes closed.

"I said pucker them!" Sam ordered.

Danny opened an eye and looked at Sam who still held that somewhat devious smile on her face.

"Do it," she urged.

Finally he did.

"Good," she said as she pulled a plastic baggie out of her coat pocket. "And now I'll give you a big wet one." Inside it contained an apple. A big wet one, to be exact. She jammed it into his mouth. "Thank you, Danny, for the lovely apples." '_And_,' she thought smugly, '_the lovely confusion that came with them_.'

Danny's eyes flashed open in shock and he placed his hand under the apple to catch it. He bit into it and let if fall into his waiting hand. He looked at Sam who appeared to be attempting an angelic look, which was odd seeing as her face was covered in gothic make up.

He took another bite of the apple. "I never told you, did I?" He asked.

Sam looked confused. "Never told me what?"

"Yesterday," he said, taking another bite. "I knee-sigh-ned to nick-aim you pole."

Sam's confusion grew. "Excuse me?"

Danny swallowed the bit of apple in his mouth and smiled his trademark grin, "Oh, sorry about that. I said that yesterday I decided to nickname you Apple."

Sam opened her mouth, and then closed it. Then she opened it again and closed it again. She continued in this manner for a few seconds. Danny was amused by the sight and continued eating his apple. He thought Sam looked like a fish. He personally preferred it over the speech that stressed the greatness of their _friendship_ that she could have been delivering.

"You know what they say, Sam," he smirked. "An Apple a day keeps the Halfa at bay."

Sam swallowed. "Well then it's a good thing I gave you one."

"You mean this thing?" Danny asked holding up the apple core. "Nah, _this_ is a Red Delicious." He flicked it into a trashcan. He grinned at Sam expectantly.

Sam was grinning too, but she rolled her eyes and put her hand on his shoulder in a knowing way. "I've got to go right now Danny, but I'll see you later. Hopefully by then you'll have better pick-up lines." She kissed him on the cheek and walked away.

Sam had nowhere to be, but she really felt she deserved better than a play on an old nursery rhyme and Danny deserved a chance to go ask someone for help.

She went inside through the kitchen door and stopped in front of the apples. All of them were shiny and red. Sam grinned at them and shook her head. She pounded up the stairs to her room. Maybe, just maybe she really did have a psychic connection with her best friend. Maybe he wasn't as thick as she had thought he was.

She lay down on her bed and stared once again at her cottage cheese-less ceiling. She couldn't seem to shake her smile. But she had to wonder…would she always smile like crazy at the sight of apples?

Danny smiled after Sam's retreating figure.

He vowed to take Valerie Grey's advice more often and started his walk home. He had some thinking to do.

It had taken him the better part of an hour to come up with that one pick-up line.

**:AN: **Alright, just to clear the whole Valerie/Sam friendship thing... This takes place three years after Danny's little accident. I figured sometime in there they might just... magically become... friends. Yup. I hope I cleared that up!

Ok, now was it just me, or did parts of this get a bit corny and OOC? Oh well. I tried. And I ask that you **_please review_** and if it's not too much trouble, could you **point out any typo's **I might have made?

Thank you kindly my lovely readers!


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